A History of the VW
Tags: van lease, van leasing, volkswagen van lease, volkswagen van leasing, vw van lease, vw van leasing
Ferdinand Porsche was the founder of Volkswagen.
It is said that he was indeed a technical genius and was employed by a big number of car companies eg Austro-Daimler, Mercedes, Daimler-Benz to name but a few.
In 1930 he opened his own design company. In 1931 he asked his team of staff to start designing a motor car with a water cooled 3 cylinder engine. This should have independent suspension and be able to accommodate 4 adults. The aim was to keep the costs as low as possible to make it affordable to the masses.
In 1932 he found a partner in Zundapp. Originally three prototypes were produced using the original design which was equipped with a new engine. Unfortunately however the engine turned out to have a severe cooling problem and melted after 10 minutes of running. Zundapp decided to leave the project.
NSU a cycle manufacturer decided to join forces and a completely new cooled 4 cylinder engine was built. The engine was placed at the back to avoid the traditional transmission with a separate gear box, drive shaft and rear axle. Unfortunately due to the economical climate in Germany at that time NSU decided to withdraw and Porche was once again on his own.
In 1933 at the Berlin Motor Show Hitler announced his plan to produce a small car for the people of Germany. Porche and Hitler were to join forces and a contract was signed in 1934. The prototypes were to be built by RDA, which was the German Auto Manufacturers Association. RDA were soon to realise that this project had a chance to be successful and this they did not want. They purposely delayed the project which made Porsche miss the deadline and thus made him lose his contract. Hitler however realised this and placed the entire project under government supervision. The 3 prototypes were delivered in October 1936.
To this day the volkswagen has stayed almost identical in design. It has a reputation for being a highly dependable car and indeed Volkswagen van leasing is a very popular alternative as they have such a solid history behind them.